Lower School (1-5)

Catalina takes an integrated approach to language development, reading, and writing. Shared methods, tools, and programs across the grades ensure students never miss a beat from year to year.

Here are a few highlights:

• Younger students learn to read, write, and spell through powerful, multi-sensory methods, such as counting out syllables with their fists and writing letters in trays of colored sand with their index fingers.
• Students meet in small groups to practice their reading skills, focusing on fluency and comprehension. Teachers provide additional instruction tailored to the strengths and needs of the group. The goal: helping students learn to read, and then read to learn.
• Santa Catalina students are authors. They learn that writing is a process of planning, drafting, editing, publishing, and sharing. Collaborating with peers and getting feedback from teachers, students tell the stories they want to tell.

New math concepts are taught in a progression: from concrete (hands-on activities) to pictorial (pictures are used to model problems) to abstract (equations). Students learn why the math works as they learn to calculate it, and they apply concepts to everyday life.

With strong roots in Spanish culture, both Santa Catalina and Monterey are ideal environments to learn the language and use it. Instruction begins in Grade 4 with conversation and games that introduce students to Spanish in an engaging, friendly way.

Our curriculum centers around labs and hands-on experiments. We use the Full Option Science System (FOSS), which allows for dynamic, inquiry-based study of everything from biology to earth science to engineering.

In Grades 4 and 5, students take overnight field trips as part of our IEB program, which stands for “Imagine. Explore. Become.” The excursions immerse students in history topics while helping them build essential life skills.

Discover our Field Trips

The beauty of having a pool on campus? Swimming is offered as part of the P.E. curriculum starting in Grade 1. At every grade level, our approach to physical education strengthens muscles, builds crucial motor skills, boosts confidence, and instills sportsmanship.

Patience, listening, empathy, self-care—these are just some of the skills and practices we intentionally teach in the classroom. Through Toolbox, our social emotional learning program, students develop 12 tools to help them understand their emotions, show empathy toward others, resolve conflicts, maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Each tool is associated with a physical object and hand gesture, as well as books to help spark discussion, ensuring students can connect each lesson with their everyday lives.

The Structured Learning Program provides support and guidance to students with diagnosed mild learning disabilities. By helping students understand and leverage their strengths and by supporting areas of difficulty, the program allows these students to keep pace with their peers. The learning specialists coordinate educational testing, team meetings, and arrange classroom accommodations.